Many designs for barbecue grills and other cooking devices generally, and their cooking grates and surfaces in particular, exist in the prior art, and several of these have been the subject of United States Patents. Some of these prior designs have focused on channeling liquefied fats and juices away from the food being cooked and away from the fire to a reservoir to avoid burning food and presenting fire and burn hazards while others have sought to improve the manner in which the food itself is cooked by trapping and distributing more of the thermal energy provided by the heat source. The present invention relates most closely to cooking grates and surfaces that trap and distribute heat to the food being cooked thereon. However, even the prior cooking grates with the same general purpose universally have a single element or combination of elements which define a planar, substantially horizontal cooking surface capable of receiving any kind of food the user sees fit to deposit on it. None of these prior cooking grates has been configured especially to accommodate generally cylindrical food items such as hotdogs and sausage which are subject to uneven cooking and rapid external burning before the inside is cooked unless monitored with tenacity while cooking. Not only do many persons find it difficult to barbecue a hotdog or sausage without burning at least some portion of it, the product is often one that many persons do not enjoy; an unevenly cooked, charred, and dried out meat product.
The present invention permits the cooking of cylindrical foodstuffs faster, more efficiently, and more evenly while minimizing undesirable burning and charring associated with prior devices.